Chopin birthday concerts
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
01.03.2017 13:55
Wednesday is the final day of a week-long celebration of the 207th anniversary of the birth of Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin.
Kevin Kenner plays Chopin. Photo: PAP/Jakub Kamiński
In line with a long-standing tradition, the composer’s birthplace of Żelazowa Wola, west of Warsaw, was the venue of a recital, broadcast live on Polish Radio 2 at noon.
The programme included a selection of the composer’s mazurkas performed by acclaimed American pianist Kevin Kenner, second-prize winner at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1990.
On Thursday, Lukas Vondracek, the Czech winner of last year’s Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, will perform during the Chopin Birthday Concert at Polish Radio’s Concert Hall.
The exact date of Chopin’s birth continues to be a subject of debate. An entry in the records of the parish church in Brochów near Żelazowa Wola, where he was baptized, as well as a birth certificate signed by the composer's parents, give the date as 22 February 1810.
In the composer’s family home, however, his birthday was celebrated on March 1 and it is this date that is now recognized as the date of Chopin’s birth. (mk/pk)